*Ph.D. Scholar, School of Management, Alagappa University, Karaikudi
**Professor of Corporate Secreretaryship, School of Management, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, Tamilnadu, India
Online published on 7 June, 2014.
Patent is for use and not for hoarding or exploitation. Patent rights give the owner the exclusive right to make the invention, use the invention, sell the invention and distribute the invention. Patent rights are granted only to new inventions capable of industrial applications. Many advocates for a global right to health believe that intellectual property rights protections have a negative effect on the realization of the right to health. The TRIPS Amendment allows developing countries with no or insufficient pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity to access alternative supplies of medicines in the event of a public health crisis. The Amendment includes safeguards to ensure that export compulsory licensing is used as originally intended for public health purposes and not to achieve industrial or commercial goals. (a) The term of a patent protection has been extended to twenty years compared to the seven years which was provided by the Act of 1970. This was made applicable to all the member countries and hence rules out all the differences with respect to patent protection which prevailed in different countries. A product patent system will make India dependent on the multinational companies for technology and for permission to produce the patented drug. Exorbitant prices will be charged and the Indian pharmaceutical industry will become subservient to the MNC's. They will lose the position that they had gained in the wake of the Act of 1970.
Patent rights, Intellectual Property Rights, Amendment, compulsory licensing, Product patent and process patent, exorbitant prices, pharmaceuticals
